> > Does anyone have a moment to explay exactly why this makes it work?
>
> I think the reason is that there is no IDE cdrom driver. there are,
BS. IDE CDROM drivers have been around for like three or four years in the
Linux kernel. That's approximately forever. ide-cd.c has the ollowing
changelog comment: 1.00 Oct 31, 1994 -- Initial version. That's six and a
half year even, with audio support in there from the beginning. No IDE
CDROM driver? Think again.
IDE CDs have analog output lines for audio data (so have SCSI drives but
if you keep them in regular external drive boxes these wires aren't
usually connected on the back panel). The audio lines are connected to the
soundcard or MB sound HW in PCs (a small jack that looks like a floppy
power connector). The cdplayer software knows about this connection, and
just sends a 'please play track x' command to the CD, and adjusts the
mixer to forward the analog CD sound input to the amp.
If you forget that cable, no sound. Apple 'forgot' that cabling at least
on the cubes. Maybe also on the new PBs. I don't own such a box. On the
older models (up to Pismo IIRC) you can play audio CDs fine. Someone in
the know can probably confirm or deny my speculation.
Michael
